As every year, on Sunday, the people of Mazatlan went their malecón to celebrate the first parade of its biggest tradition, Carnaval Internacional Mazatlan, which in 2018 took the name of "Patasalada: The Circus of the Talents", a tribute to the identity of Mazatlan.

With benches and blueachers, with colorful outfits or a casual wardrobe, Mazatlecan families and tourists occupied rooms, roofs, ridges, sidewalks and any possible place to applaud the creativity, enthusiasm and love that hundreds of artists expressed in the parade, floats, musical ensembles and extravagant costumes to make people laugh and sigh in amazement thousands of spectators who crowded the coastal promenade.

To warm the atmosphere, the commercial part of the parade encouraged the crowd with gifts, music, dances and colorful characters that made the patasaladas approach the companies that, through their contributions, make it possible for the Carnaval Mazatlan to grow in quality.

Later the first firecracker burst in the sky and the colossal retinue organized by the Instituto de Cultura de Mazatlan, integrated by 31 floats and exhibition cars, showed the flora and fauna, the history, the folklore, the cultural and artistic icons of "La Perla del Pacífico" has delivered to Mexico and the world.

The four royal floats created by the maestra Francisco Igartúa marked the different tones of the parade: in the Royal float for SGM Alexa I, Queen of the Carnaval 2018 imposed the magnificence and the splendor under the sign of "The Deer"; SGM Sofia I, Queen of the Floral Prize of Poetry 2018, had "El Mango" as an icon of the courageous and generous spirit of the land of Sinaloa; "El Pez Vela" (Marlin) on Gretel´s float, Child Queen 2018, was a symbol of the spontaneity and imagination of the patasaladas and the pink "Camarón", popular fruit of the sea, represented the inexhaustible spirit of the King of Joy, which has Tulio Martínez as a worthy ambassador.

Along with the creations of Igartúa, which gave life tofloats composed by ingenious mechanisms (like the lighthouse of the royal float); beautiful and simple sculptures (like the shrimp boat of the King of Joy) or colorful and imaginative works (such as the exuberant float of the Floral Prize of Poetry or the colorful and cheerful float of the Child Queen), maestros Jorge González Neri and Jorge Osuna skimmed on creativity to capture threatening tigers, musical bands, Chesire cats, toothless sperm whales, tropical pine needles, amazing monkeys, blue deer, trapeze artists, elephants and circus tents ... a worthy parade for the hungry crowd gathered in along the sea.

Along with the sovereigns of Carnaval 2018, there was space in this parade to honor the queens and kings from 25 and 50 years ago: Patricia Guevara, Queen of Floral Prize of Poetry of 1968; Amina Blancarte, Queen of the Carnaval 1993; Celia Jáuregui, Queen of Floral Prize of Poetry 1993 and Oscar Valdez, King of the Joy 1993. In addition, beautiful ambassadors of beauty contests from Mexico and the world participated in this monumental parade.

As every year, the traditional parade of the Carnaval Internacional Mazatlan 2018 demonstrated how Mazatlan´s identity celebrates equally the magnificence and formality together with scintillating taste, fecund and irreverent mood of the Mazatlecos that among voluptuous young people, sensual and strong dancers or outlandish costumes of dance groups raised the shouts, laughter and yells of the "Mazatlecan people" that did not stop celebrating the splendor of the great fiesta.

For those who could not attend the parade this Sunday, or wish to experience it, on Tuesday, February 13, the walking fiesta will begin at 4:30 hours on Av. Del Mar, at the height of the Aquarium and will go to Paseo Olas Altas and conclude on Av. Miguel Alemán.